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Maya Rudolph's Masterful Beyoncé Hot Ones Parody Earned Her an Emmy
Rudolph's 11th SNL sketch impersonating Queen Bey brought the interview-averse singer to one of the biggest pop culture destinations of the last decade.
In her nine seasons as a Saturday Night Live cast member, Maya Rudolph showcased her killer Beyoncé impression *seven times* as Fred Armisen's "Prince Show" sketch partner. While Rudolph revived the impersonation when she returned to host in 2012 — and once more during the 2015 Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special — her Bey is arguably best remembered for two more recent sketches. In Rudolph's Emmy-winning second turn as an SNL Host, she brought the "Texas Hold 'Em" singer to the red-hot YouTube series Hot Ones for the first time.
The idea to insert a celebrity who's become interview-averse over the last 10 years into one of the most successful pop culture properties of the past decade proved instantly brilliant in the March 27, 2021 sketch. When Hot Ones Host Sean Evans (Mikey Day) welcomes Beyoncé with awe and disbelief, Rudolph's pitch-perfect Bey tells him, "I feel you. I still can't tell if this is beneath me."
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But despite her "I'm from Texas" boasts — to paraphrase an exchange on Ariana Grande's very real August 2024 Hot Ones episode — the fictional Bey's experience proved more DJ Khaled than Lorde-level, and the ever-spicier hot wings had her sweating, screaming, and cursing out Sean Evans.
Maya Rudolph's Beyoncé couldn't handle hot wings on SNL
Screaming for her hairstylist, D'Michael Angelo (Kenan Thompson), Bey instructs him, "I need you to take my wig off. Put six ice cubes on my head. Then put my wig back on."
After an assistant (Ego Nwodim) forbids the show from filming a wig slip, the interview resumes. But the pop icon can't answer a simple question about the "Single Ladies" choreo because, "Dude, it's taking all my concentration not to blow out my pants on your janky-ass show."
The real Beyoncé would never, but Maya Rudolph's Bey returned to Hot Ones again for a sequel sketch during her May 11, 2024 episode in Season 49. Eager to remedy "The only thing I have attempted that I did not slay," she sidled up to the wings table once more. Speaking in tongues and commanding Day's Evans to "shut your Charlie Brown looking-a-- for a minute," the show remains rare unconquerable territory for the star.
The real Sean Evans reacted to the SNL parodies — and Mikey Day's impression — during a May TODAY interview with Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager.
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"My favorite thing about this is somebody at Saturday Night Live had to source, like, a Sean Evans outfit,” he told them. "They knocked it out of the park with the brown suede jacket, I love it.”
Maya Rudolph took home an Emmy for the episode featuring her first "Hot Ones with Beyoncé" sketch. Now that she's up for another Emmy for the 2024 episode that produced a follow-up, just one question remains: Will it happen again?
Watch the sketch from Season 46, Episode 15 above, and stream every season of Saturday Night Live on Peacock anytime.
